Google to take steps to curb AI-generated deepfakes, misinformation in India

Google has shed light on some of its initiatives and also has began testing a wide range of safety tools on AI-generated, photo-realistic, synthetic audio or video content known as “synthetic media”.

In India, earlier this month, vulgar deepfake videos of several high profile personalities-- Rashmika Mandanna, Katrina Kaif, Alia Bhatt and others emerged on social media platform. Public, celebrities, and even Prime Minister Narendra Modi too raised concerns over the people's privacy safety on social media platforms.

Taking serious note of the issue, Union IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw and Rajeev Chandrashekar (Minister of State for Skill Development, Entrepreneurship and Electronics and Information Technology of India) held meeting with big technology companies on ways to curb deep fakes, which are a serious threat to democracy.

With Lok Sabha election scheduled in April-May 2024, there are high probability of threat actors try to defame incumbent ministers and opposition members.

The government has given one week's time to big tech firms to bring in policy to put an end to deepfakes and generative Ariticificial Intelligence (gen AI)-based misinformation campaigns online.

Now, Google has shed light on some of its initiatives and also has began testing a wide range of safety tools on security risks such as AI-generated, photo-realistic, synthetic audio or video content known as “synthetic media”.

It has to be noted that Google's gen AI-based assistant Bard is now integrated to the Google search. And, with every result, it has added "About this result” to offer the context and also where the result was sourced.

Also, there is an option to 'double check' the result to make sure it is genuine.

Also, for gen AI-generated images, Google is labeling them with metadata and embedded watermarking with SynthID. It is currently being rolled out to a limited number of Vertex AI customers using Imagen, Google's latest text-to-image models.

Also, in the coming months, Google's YouTube will make it mandatory for creators to disclose if their content was altered or feature synthetic content made using AI tools. This information will be relayed to the viewers too.

YouTube has revised its 'misrepresentation policy for Google Ads'. It prohibits the use of manipulated media, deep fakes and other forms of doctored content meant to deceive, defraud, or mislead users.

In the coming months, YouTube will bring a new option to privacy request process for users be able to request the removal of AI-generated or other synthetic or altered content that simulates an identifiable individual, including their face or voice.

"There is no silver bullet to combat deep fakes and AI-generated misinformation. It requires a collaborative effort, one that involves open communication, rigorous risk assessment, and proactive mitigation strategies. For example, on YouTube, we use a combination of people and machine learning technologies to enforce our Community Guidelines, with reviewers across Google operating around the world. In our systems, AI classifiers help detect potentially violative content at scale, and reviewers work to confirm whether content has actually crossed policy lines. AI is helping to continuously increase both the speed and accuracy of our content moderation systems," said Michaela Browning, VP, Government Affairs & Public Policy, Google Asia Pacific.

Google has announced partnership with Indian government to work with some of these programmes, and to continue dialogue, including through upcoming Global Partnership on Artificial Intelligence (GPAI) Summit, in New Delhi from December 12 to 14, 2023.

Get the latest news on new launches, gadget reviews, apps, cybersecurity, and more on personal technology only on DH Tech.